It's a common saying that if you have your health, you have everything. It even featured (expressed in the negative, and very much tongue-in-cheek) in the popular movie, "The Princess Bride," when Count Rugen says to Prince Humperdinck, "Get some rest. If you haven't got your health, you haven't got anything."
The very fact this saying is so common shows that many believe good health is the most important thing we can possess, and without it, we have nothing of value. There is a vast array of costly but easy diet plans, 5-minute daily exercise programs, "guaranteed cures" for all manner of illnesses (real and not-so-real), and simple ways to take years off your appearance that all confirm how important good health, and the appearance of good health are to us as a people.
But if we have made good health everything in our thinking, what happens when we lose it (which we certainly will one day)? We will suffer not just the pain, inconvenience and humiliation of the ailment itself. There are myriad other hurts - some of them excruciating - that we will have to endure in addition. Instead of the admiration of our friends, we will be the subjects of their pity. Instead of being able to boast about our physical accomplishments, our greatest feat each day may be getting out of bed - provided someone helps us. Instead of attracting praise for our good and youthful looks, we will notice the shock when people first look at us, then their embarrassed, averted gaze and their speechlessness in our presence. Perhaps one of the worst pains we will have to deal with is what we see as the unfairness of it all. Why has this happened to me? What have I ever done to deserve this? Such thinking can eat us alive and fill us with bitterness and frustration.
We don't for one moment want to dismiss the great blessing that mental and physical health are in this life. What we do want to expose is the utter foolishness of making these things our all, and of devoting our time and money to pursuing and maintaining them above all else.
Writing to Timothy, Paul acknowledges that physical fitness is of some benefit, but he immediately puts this into perspective by comparing it with the much greater value of spiritual well-being:
1 Timothy 4:7-8 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
When we looked at the issue of loss of wealth, we saw that all the things we can possess in this world are transient and temporal, whereas believers have surpassing riches in heaven that are eternal. It's the same with health, too. The bodies we occupy in this world are made of dust and will return to dust after a few short years, because of our sin. Just as it is crazy to devote our lives to amassing wealth that we must leave behind us when we die, it is folly to expend excessive time and energy on health and fitness when our bodies have a built-in "shelf life". Both our "best before" and "use by" dates in this world are fixed as a result of sin.
There is a common thread that will run through all these meditations. It is that we seek to replace in this world what we had in the garden of Eden but lost through sin. And the substitutes we find are cheap and tawdry knock-offs of the originals. Adam and Eve were unbelievably rich in the garden with true, spiritual wealth. We try to make up for that loss with gold, dollars and cents but it doesn't bring contentment. Adam and Eve were in a state of perfect health and eternal youth in the garden but they became prone to all manner of degradation and decay after the fall. All our attempts to preserve our youth and remain indefinitely healthy by our own devices are doomed to failure.
How does the Gospel help believers come to terms in this life with a loss of health? In many, many ways. First, we understand from God's Word that all of the pain and suffering we experience in this world may be traced back to sin - originally to that of Adam and Eve but since then to every person who has lived (excepting Jesus Christ). We realize that if God immediately gave us what we deserve, we would be cast into the Lake of Fire and would endure an agony of just torment from God because of our sin. If we enjoy even a millisecond of good health in this world, it is all of His mercy and grace. This reflection pulls out the sting from the frustration and bitterness we may be tempted to, and turns it into thanksgiving and praise because we receive so many gracious (undeserved) blessings from God in this world.
Second, we again have gospel hope. If this world, and our 70-80 years in it, was indeed everything, then we would be justified every day to eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may die. We would have every reason to pursue at great cost one more moment of painless and stamina-filled existence. But in the Gospel, we have come to see that this world isn't everything. For the believer, it is a short prelude to a place of eternal bliss, where there is no more pain, no more crying, no more sadness. If that is what we are destined for and are truly looking forward to, then we can (and should) be grateful for any days of health and wellness we have here, but they will not be of paramount importance for us. We have already experienced the spiritual realities of the Gospel, and we are much better able to endure trials and afflictions, knowing their spiritual origin and their temporary nature.
Third, we have no need to wallow in self pity, we will have an opportunity to glorify God as we testify to the truth of the Gospel and God's faithfulness to His promise to be with us even as we pass through the fires of affliction.
Finally, we have the certainty that Jesus Christ, on the cross, put an end to the sin that ushered in our illnesses and frailties. The end of all the things that our sin has caused is therefore irrevocable - just a matter of time. This consideration helps us to endure all manner of difficulties with patience and with joy.
How is the loss of health turned into gain for believers in heaven as a result of the Gospel? Paul talks about the bodies we live in here as "bodies of sin"
Romans 6:6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
However, in the resurrection at the Last Day, believers will receive new and glorious bodies, resembling the resurrection body of Christ:
1 Corinthians 15:42-44 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
1 Corinthians 15:51-53 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
2 Corinthians 5:1-9 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
All our health "losses" in this world will be turned into incomprehensible gain on that Day. There will be no more sin. Our transformed bodies will no longer bodies of sin. All the consequences of sin that we experience in this creation (including all kinds of illness and infirmity) will be wiped away. We will have the eternal youth and health that Adam and Eve enjoyed before they fell. Indeed, we will be in a better state than they were, since we will be unable to re-introduce sin into the newly-perfected New Creation!
Revelation 21:3-5 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Once again, we close with those wonderful words of Christ. For the believer, death is gain in every sense!
Philippians 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
